Tag Archives: The Magicians

This! This series was so so good. And then it wasn’t. And then it was again. So it all worked out.

The Magicians, the first book in the series, was awesome. It drew me in so fast, I read it in a six hour car ride. My parents got me The Magicians for Christmas three-ish years ago, and I LOVED IT. It’s about supposedly normal teens who are admitted to a school of magic (Muggle borns at Hogwarts, anyone?). The students grew up reading books about a magical land called Fillory, and upon graduation find out that Fillory exists, similar to the Narnia stories. They find a way to Fillory and end up, you guessed it, being named Kings and Queens of FIllory. There’s even a tree that grew from a clock, like the lamppost tree in Narnia. The author is clearly aware of the similarities though, he brings up the Narnia books at least once.

Like the Narnia stories, adventures ensue and the characters have to face danger after danger to save Fillory. **SPOILER ALERT** People fall in love, people die, and the story ends. Honestly, my favourite part of the story was when the teens were in school. The bonding that goes on is just so fun to read about. Don’t get me wrong, the whole story is great, but the first chunk where the students were at school was my favourite. There’s so much (mostly) good-natured teasing and sarcasm going around, it’s entirely entertaining.

The second book in the series, The Magician King, well… it was terrible. I hated it. It let me down completely after the great first book. It’s worth reading, if only to understand what is going on in the third book. Let’s just skip the second one all together and head right into the third book, The Magician’s Land.

I have seen people praise this book as “the best ending to a series ever” and I’m calling major b.s. on that. However, it is a good book. It wraps the story up nicely, tying up any loose ends as well as introducing new characters. The story takes place several years after the first and second stories, the original characters who were teens in the beginning are now in their thirties. It was pretty interesting to see how they grew, their personalities and their relationships with each other developed. It’s hard to explain the third book in a series when I haven’t even told you the characters names, but just trust me when I tell you it’s a good series. The characters are all likeable in their own way, if only because of the absolute unlikeableness they posses. Yes I realize that statement contradicts itself, but that’s life. It’s all about contradictions. Look at me, getting all philosophical.

Take this as you will, really it’s just a bunch of nonsensical rambling about a book series that I enjoyed, but I think you should read it. It being The Magicians trilogy, not this blog post. Clearly you’ve already read the blog post if you’re here. Clearly I stopped making sense a few sentences ago, and am in need of some sleep. Goodnight friends!